Reviews & Press

The Dream House

‘Engrossing, surprising and thoroughly readable.’ Santa Montefiore

‘A beautifully written and magical novel about life, love and family… tender and funny, warm and wise, the story of one woman’s search for the perfect life which isn’t quite where she thought she would find it. I loved it.’ Cathy Kelly

The Memory Garden

‘With her second novel, Rachel Hore proves she does place and setting as well as romance and relationships. Tiny, hidden Lamorna Cove in Cornwall is the backdrop to two huge tales of illicit passion and thwarted ambition… Clever Stuff.’ Daily Mirror

‘Pitched perfectly for a holiday read.’ Guardian

The Glass Painter’s Daughter

‘Another of this year’s top offerings [is] Rachel Hore’s The Glass Painter’s Daughter. The main character, Fran, has returned home to look after her dying father’s glass-cutting business. Overshadowing the central love affair with colleague Zac and an unfolding mystery involving a stained-glass window is the pall of imminent death’. Daily Mail

A Place of Secrets

‘Hore once again shows her gift for bringing the past to life: her understanding of memory, stories and craft is as strong here as in The Memory Garden’ –Waterstone’s Books Quarterly

‘Anyone who likes well written fiction will love this…I will with absolute certainty be getting myself the rest of Rachel’s books, and I can’t wait to get stuck into them all. Hopefully they’ll all be as fantastic as A Place of Secrets’ –ChickLitReviews.com

‘Jude is an appealing heroine and Hore’s writing draws the reader beguilingly into her world. An atmospheric, beautifully written romance, with an intriguing historical mystery woven through its pages’
–Living North

A Gathering Storm

‘With a serious eye for exquisite detail, Hore’s latest, brilliantly crafted novel aptly follows a photographer, Lucy. She takes a journey to capture past, life-changing family secrets, embracing three generations along the way, across Cornwall, London East Anglia and Occupied France’ — Daily Mirror 23/9/12

Romance is not dead: How Rachel Hore is resurrecting the reputation of the romantic novel

Interview with Rachel Hore in the Independent

Rachel Hore looks nervous. Dressed in shades of grey that accentuate the pristine whiteness of her publisher’s clinical offices, the 50-year- old author stands out like a country girl at a City soirée, desperate to disappear but condemned to draw every gaze.

It is not that she lacks confidence or sophistication – Hore cut her teeth in London publishing, as a highly respected editor of novels that made an easy transition from bookshop to beach without losing literary cachet. No, it is not that. It is an awkwardness at odds with modern publishing’s obsession with marketing and “brand extension”. It is the unease of an author more at home with writing than hustling her work.

Writing excites Hore. Her craft is something to feel passionate about. Talking about it makes her self-conscious – as though she’s boasting at school. Deep into the interview, I ask about the theme of adoption in her latest novel and whether this was a self- conscious nod at 18th-century fiction. For the first time she unknots her body and laughs: “Oh yes, the 18th-century romp; galloping across the countryside, highwayman and that sort of thing. I wanted a bit of that.” The caution that marked earlier answers is gone.

We have met to discuss her fourth novel, A Place of Secrets. Like the others, it is an up-market romance split between interlinked stories set in the present day and the past – in this case, the 18th century…